Author's Notes: Thanks for the feedback everyone. Always a pleasure to see you. The antagonist of the story will slowly come back into the storyline, but right now, I need to get this portion of the story dealt with first. Thank you again. And Barbara rocks!

Chapter 1

"Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother." – Kahlil Gibran

With Richard at the helm, the former engaged couple headed north in hopes of discovering if Superman was all right.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Richard said.

"Yes… kind of… pretty sure."

Richard opened his mouth to say that her words hardly gave him confidence about this venture but he decided to stick with it and shut up. Her gut feeling was normally right anyway.

For the rest of the trip, they remained relatively silent, the only sound was Lois' constant nervous tapping of her fingers. Anyone could tell from a mile away how worried she was.

"If he's out there, we'll find him." Despite everything that had happened, Lois would always mean a great deal to him. He loved her like no other and that feeling doesn't just go away. He knew it'll take time to move on, but it doesn't have to be right now. "We should be there soon."

Lois nodded appreciatively. Then she thought back to the past and remembered the couple of times Superman had taken her to his home up north. At least she thought it was his home. It was complete with everything except the personal fineries of everyday folk like picture frames, carpeted floors, colored walls and drapes. She wondered if the Fortress of Solitude had changed as much as they had.

"Do you think I'm making a mistake?" she asked suddenly.

Richard looked over, unprepared to hear much less answer the question. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," she said.

Richard took a much needed breath before finally giving her the only answer he could give. "You love him," he said simply. "That should be enough."

"And if it's not?"

Richard smiled weakly. "Then you and I will have one more thing in common." Lois nodded, thinking over his words, when she suddenly felt that they were getting close to their destination. She sat straighter, the view getting more and more familiar but the area she waited for never came into her line of sight, and she worried that her memory wasn't as sharp as it used to be.

"You sure this is the place?" Richard asked for the ten-thousandth time.

When Lois moved her gaze to the other side of the windows, her eyes opened wide as she caught the ruins below them.

"Land the plane!" she said in a panic-stricken voice.

"What?" he replied, confused.

"I see it," she said, confirming her view with a point of a finger. "There." Fear gripped her as she saw the remains of Superman's Fortress of Solitude buried beneath layers of ice. The wonder that was the replica of his dead home world was gone. She closed her eyes and feared even more about what was to come, or what they'd find.

"Be careful, Lois!" Richard yelled after her worriedly. He couldn't help it. After five years of courtship and living together, he couldn't stop being concerned no matter how much they'd drifted apart.

Lois, as always, ignored him. She continued making her way across the ice where the Fortress of Solitude should be. Richard was close behind, constantly reminding her to be careful, and that finding Superman would be fruitless if something happened to her. If her head and heart weren't in so much turmoil, she would've at least sent him a thankful glance.

"Lo—" Richard's word stopped midway through as he stared at the fallen structure of Superman's home in awe. "Jesus Christ!" His jaw fell even further as his eyes glanced every which way at the crystallized structures and pillars buried beneath the ice.

Lois directed her flashlight where the control center should've been, hoping she'd find a clue, any clue, where Superman could be.

"Lois," Richard said, finally finding his voice. He picked up the red cape and he felt a lump in his throat. He reluctantly held it out for Lois to see. "I'm sor—" but she cut him off.

"Don't you say that," she said angrily, snatching the cape away from him. "He's going to be okay. He wouldn't leave us again."

Richard threw her an apologetic glance. Whatever happened here, he knew there had been a fight. How else could you explain what happened? The foundation looked like it was torn right through. There were broken pieces everywhere.

Then he watched Lois hold onto Superman's cape like a lifeline. A few weeks ago, he wouldn't have been able to see that without feeling jealousy and anger, but at this moment, he felt her pain. Everything he held dear fell apart after the great hero returned, and while he still felt some remnant of less than noble feelings about how he lost it all, he wouldn't wish that on anyone deserving of happiness.

"He's got to be around here somewhere," she said, taking him out of his thoughts.

"Okay," he replied, removing his backpack to relieve him of all the extra weight. He began to carefully walk around, hoping to God that he didn't step on thin ice or anything like that.

They searched for hours, their flashlights running low on battery. Small parts of what was left of the giant pillars that normally encased the fortress blocked the sunlight from above, making things much too dark for them to see through.

"SUPERMAN!" Richard's head snapped up at the sound of her voice. "Oh, my God," he faintly heard her say. "Richard, over here!"

Richard rushed over there as fast as he could and knelt beside Lois. "Where?" he asked, and she pointed down a hole where he saw a hand, and the familiar blue sleeve that came along with it. "I see him," he said, getting back up and retrieving their equipment. They had brought along some mountain climbing gear in case they needed it.

"Superman, can you hear me?" Lois said loudly, trying to get his attention. Her heart beat even faster when he didn't respond. "Richard, hurry!"

Richard didn't need to be told twice.

"Man, he's freezing!" Richard said as he and Lois put one of his arms around each of their shoulders to lead him out of the Fortress and into the sunlight. Once they got him out of there, they noted how beat up he looked and the tears in his suit. As if he had been down to hell itself and barely survived it.

Lois's concern deepened when nothing happened. "Why isn't he getting better?" She looked up into the sun and back to Superman again.

"I don't know," Richard said, completely out of ideas. "Maybe we should take him to a hospital."

"No!"

Richard couldn't believe what she just said. "What?"

"I'm not handing him over to the government or whomever only for them to take advantage of him." They lifted him into the seaplane with some degree of difficulty. "I feel him breathing… barely," she continued, placing one hand on his chest as Richard buckled into the cockpit.

Lois was frightened. When they finally got him out, she saw that his body was battered and bruised. His suit was stained with frozen blood. Right now, she couldn't even think about how it had happened, all she cared about was seeing him wake up, or at least some sign that he was over the worst and would be getting better from this point on.

It took forever to arrive back in Metropolis. Richard landed the plane along the riverfront home Lois had once shared with him. He kept the house after she moved out, insisting that it was more suited to him than to her. They both also hoped that Richard keeping the house would provide an easier transition for Jason.

"It's a good thing it got dark," Richard said, helping the unconscious hero out of his plane while Lois remained to help from the inside. "I wouldn't know how to explain this to our neighbors."

"We're going to have to cover the windows."

"Go ahead and do that," Richard said, lifting Superman over his shoulder. "I'll be right behind you."

"Are you sure?" she asked wearily. She didn't feel comfortable being away from Superman for more than a second.

"He's a lot lighter than I expected," Richard mused, trying to make this easier for them both.

By the time they got him inside, Superman was running an incredibly high fever. Who knows how long he had been stuck down there, and near death, too. Lois remained by Superman's side throughout the night.

Superman stayed that way a few more days until one morning, as Lois was dabbing a cool wet cloth atop his forehead when she felt him stir. Before she could react, his eyes opened and stared directly into Lois' with what looked like, little recognition.

"Superman," she said, relieved. Her heart leaped to see him awake.

He blinked a few times before finally responding. His words shattered all her hopes into a thousand different pieces.

"Who are you?"

To be continued…